Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Comic Book Publishers Of the Past volume 4

COMMENTARYBy Alex NessJune 23, 2017

I am not as familiar with the structure and offerings of Caliber as I am with other publishers, now defunct. But they did put out at least two comics that I very much enjoyed. Kabuki by David Mack was luscious in beauty, if not as well written as I'd like. The Crow was a violent revenge fantasy that I think was pretty good, for what it is.

Caliber made some later efforts, such as creating Desperado in order to publish reprints, to reboot past series, and to try to return as a publisher.

Gary Reed was one of the guiding forces of Caliber, and his legacy is one of a creative talent who supported creative works. His death in 2016 at 60 years of age, was a blow to the corporate comic book industry.

CHAOS Comics produced comics I tended to dislike, so I should avoid saying much in that regard. Brian Pulido is a very nice fellow, but the comics put out by Chaos took a different tact, in that, they didn't play nice, or in general, they focused upon the evil in our world. And reveled in it.

TOPPS Comics were actually quite good. They had successful comics that were based upon other forms of media.

Xena, Lone Ranger and Tonto, Jurassic Park, X-Files, Bram Stoker's Dracula, various Jack Kirby characters illustrated by top talent were quite nicely put together. They had a fair sized following, but they tapered off in the end when the investor caused Speculative boom ended.